Military Medical Experiments in Alaska

 

At their best, the midcentury cold weather tests in Alaska were logical, necessary, and even somewhat adventurous. But with limited oversight, moral and ethical breaches did occur, including one of the more underreported controversies in Alaska history.

In 1947, the Air Force founded the Arctic Aeromedical Laboratory, or AAL, at Randolf Air Force Base, in Texas of all places, though it was soon relocated to Ladd Air Force Base. Its stated purpose was “to solve the severe environmental problems of men living and working in the Arctic,” prioritizing research on the human experience in extreme cold more than technological issues. Its more innocent projects included the previously mentioned morale survey and a wearable sleeping bag.

History is rife with terrors and tragedies when militaries experimented on their own personnel. Then there are the times when such organizations performed medical studies on private citizens. In 1955, the AAL began a study on the thyroid’s role in cold acclimatization for humans. Based on animal studies, AAL researchers hypothesized that the thyroid prompted an increased metabolism in response to extreme cold, thus aiding adaptation and survival.

A hypothesis is one thing, reasonable and debatable. Then, the researchers decided to experiment on actual people, using radioactive iodine to track thyroid activity. From 1955 to 1957, 121 individuals — 102 Alaska Natives and 19 military personnel — were given radioactive iodine pills. The Alaska Native subjects were from Anaktuvuk Pass, Arctic Village, Fort Yukon, Point Hope, Point Lay and Wainwright.

The military personnel were briefed on the nature of the study and then asked to participate. The Alaska Native subjects, however, had no idea what they were ingesting. There was no written consent, no informed consent of any type. The researchers approached village elders who summoned other residents to take part in the experiment. This interaction was limited by fundamental language barriers and a more specific inability to translate the scientific and medical details of the study, like the word “radioactive.”

Many, if not most, of the Alaska Native participants believed the pills were some sort of positive medicinal treatment. As James Nageak, one of the subjects, later said, “I figured it was something that would make me healthier. If I’d known what was in those pills, I never would have taken them . . . Nobody would have.” Further, none of the Alaska Native subjects were informed of the study results.

To be clear, and as noted in a 1996 review of the study, this methodology violated the Nuremberg Code on human research, AAL guidelines, and basic human decency. No such study would now be allowed to proceed. At least one participant developed thyroid cancer, and in 2000, the Air Force issued an apology and paid $7 million in restitution. The AAL folded in 1967.

 

Historian David Reamer in the Anchorage Daily News, January 30, 2024